Most digital photo organizers today associate tags with photos from a user's digital photo archive. A tag is a keyword used to describe and categorize a photo. When digital photos are tagged, a user can issue a search query having one or more tags, and the digital photo organizer searches for all digital photos having the one or more tags associated therewith.
Tags are especially useful for identifying objects appearing in digital photos. Objects may be inter alia people, business establishments, organizations, governments and municipalities, geographical sites, entertainment services and information services. Such tags are referred to as “name tags”. If photos are tagged with name tags corresponding to objects appearing therein, then a user can easily search for and locate all of his photos in which a designated object appears, even for very large digital photo archives. Many familiar web-based image applications and social networks use name tags, including Picasa® Web Albums operated by Google Inc. of Mountainview, Calif., and Facebook® operated by Facebook, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif.
Tagging photos with tags corresponding to objects may be done manually by a user, automatically by object recognition software such as the OKAO Vision™ face sensing software developed and marketed by OMRON Corporation of Kyoto, Japan, or the Face Sensing Engine developed and marketed by Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan.
A “digital photo frame” is an electronic device that presents digital photos in a photo frame, generally in a slide show fashion with an adjustable transition time. Digital photo frames include a video engine and microprocessor which processes JPEG images, controls power management, and controls a user interface. Some digital photo frames also support movie clips, audio and text. For such digital photo frames, the video engine and microprocessor also decodes MPEG videos and handles audio processing for up to two channels, the audio processing including digital to analog audio conversion and audio amplification.
Digital photo frames are controlled via a user interface. The user interface may include buttons, remote control, and touch control. The Shogo SG 080 digital photo frame manufactured and distributed by RealEase Limited of Hong Kong, and the Ality PF-T150 digital photo frame manufactured and distributed by Mustek, Inc. of Taiwan have touch-sensitive display screens.
Many digital photo frames include internal memory for storing digital photos. Such digital photo frames generally enable users to load photos to the memory via a USB connection. Many digital frames are able to render and display digital photos directly from a camera memory card.
Some digital photo frames are networked and support wireless communication such as Wi-Fi or broadband or phone line. Such digital photo frames load photos over the Internet from RSS feeds, from e-mail attachments, and from photo sharing sites such as Flickr® operated by Yahoo! Inc of Sunnyvale, Calif., and Picasa® Web Albums. Ceiva Logic, Inc. of Burbank, Calif. manufactures and distributes a digital photo frame, and offers PicturePlan®, which is a monthly service for downloading photos over a phone line. The Ceiva digital photo frame optionally supports wireless connectivity. Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan manufactures and distributes a VAIO® WiFi Photo Frame, Model VGF-CP1, with wireless connectivity. Ality Limited of Hong Kong manufactures and distributes a Wireless PIXXA™ digital photo frame with wireless connectivity. The DF7700 digital photo frame manufactured and distributed by Parrot SA of Paris, France, and the Vodafone 520 photo frame manufactured and distributed by Vodafone Group plc of Berkshire, England, have cellular connectivity. The DF7700 and the Vodafone 520 digital photo frames have slots for SIM cards and, as such, have their own phone numbers that can be used for sending photos to the digital photo frames.